


Childhood Magic

by tptigger



Category: Power Rangers Ninja Steel
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic, Magic, Pre-Canon, no bunnies were hurt during the making of this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-29 23:32:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17212907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tptigger/pseuds/tptigger
Summary: Preston sees a magician at a street fair and falls in love--with magic.





	Childhood Magic

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gingayellow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingayellow/gifts).



Preston held tight to his mother's hand as they wound their way through the street fair. His mom had been selling her homemade jewelry in a stall by one of the tables, but they'd needed to close up early for a parade. Preston wasn't tempted by the games anymore--his mom had dragged him to enough of these types of events that he knew they were impossible to win.

They dived past a family not watching where they were going while eating their cotton candy and into the crush of the crowd.

They emerged on the other side just in time to see a woman in a top hat and tails show her empty hands and then produce a dove from seemingly nowhere. Preston froze, his eyes wide in fascination.

"Preston," his mother said, firmly.

"I want to watch. Please?"

His mother sighed, but quit tugging on his hand.

The woman handed the dove to another woman in a long, sequined dress. She then took two continuous, interlocking rings, tugged on them a few times and separated them. Then she put them back together!

Preston's jaw dropped.

The woman crouched in front of Preston. "You have something behind your ear."

Preston reached up, feeling. "No, I don't."

"Are you sure?" The woman reached up, behind Preston's ear and he felt the tickle of a piece paper behind his ear. She brought her hand down in front of him, displaying two long, rectangular pieces of cardboard with printing on it. "It looks like two free tickets to my magic show this weekend."

Preston looked up at his mother, who nodded. "Thank you," Preston said, taking the tickets.

She then removed her hat. "Do me a favor, reach in there, check that it's empty."

Preston reached in, finding nothing but a velvet lining. "It's empty."

"Yes, very good," she said, withdrawing to the table set up on the ground. She placed the hat on the table, and waved a wand over it. "Abracadabra."

She reached in and pulled out a rabbit.

Preston gasped, clapping in awe. "That is so cool!"

"Thank you," the woman said. "I'll be performing at the downtown theater all this week!"

Preston took his mom's hand, following her towards the car.

"Can we go?"

* * *

"Dad!" Preston tore through the front door, down the hallway to the kitchen. "Dad!"

His father turned around from the stove and bent down, scooping Preston and settling him on one arm. "What is it, Preston?" He used his other hand to stir the soup on the stove.

Preston took a deep breath and said in a rush, "Dad we saw a lady pull a rabbit out of a hat and make flowers out of nowhere and magically pull rings apart and I wanna do magic and she gave us tickets..."

His Dad laid down the spoon and smoothed out his hair. "Whoa, slow down there, Preston, what?"

His mother chuckled as she entered the kitchen, leaning in to give his father a kiss. "We saw a street magician and she pulled a pair of tickets to her show downtown tomorrow night from behind Preston's ear."

His father frowned. "A magic show?"

"I can take him," his mother said.

"Downtown?"

"I can take him."

His father sighed, setting Preston down. "Honey, I don't..."

"It will be fine."

* * *

Preston could never remember that first magic show as well as he would have liked. It was a blur of rabbits coming out of hats, women being sawn in half, and other, less classic illusions that he wouldn't be able to remember years later.

He did remember the magician's name, years later, Sylvia Alexander. This was because he had bought a poster after the show. There were a lot of posters that his mother had tsk'd over but the one he wanted was the one of Sylvia in her full top hat, tails, and pants suit, mid-pulling a rabbit out of her hat. The look of relief on her face when he told her was palpable, and she'd gladly bought him the poster. It would hang in his bedroom and move with him to his college dorm.

He could, however, remember it well enough right after to burst into the house, run up to his dad, who was reading in his armchair, and started babbling.

"Dad!" Preston tugged on his father's sleeve until he put down his newspaper. "She escaped from a lock fished tank! And made her assistant disappear! And cut her assistant in half--she moved the box and everything! The box was closed--I guess so you couldn't see her guts--then she pulled a rabbit out of a hat again and..."

"Preston, breathe," his father said. 'You know that was all pretend, right?"

"No, it wasn't, Dad!" Preston said. "It was real! We were right there!"

His father stood from his chair then lifted Preston up. "Let's go have a look on the computer, shall we?" 

His father walked into his study, settled Preston onto his lap, then typed "how to perform magic tricks" into a search box. He then showed him web pages that explained how to saw someone in half--there were two boxes, and small person in the second box--how to pull a rabbit from a hat (a hole in the table the hat is on, or if you're really good, you just direct the audience's attention elsewhere and pull something out of your sleeve) and several other things.

Preston's jaw dropped.

"You see?"

Preston saw. Preston saw very clearly. He didn't need powers! "I could do that!" Preston said. "I want to do that!"

"Now Preston..."

"There are worse hobbies, dear," Preston's mother said, patting his father's shoulder.

His father frowned. "Preston should be concentrating on his studies."

"All work and no play makes Preston a dull boy," his mother said.

Preston sighed. "I'm right here and I want to learn magic."

"We'll talk about this later," his father said.

Preston wasn't sure if this was directed at him or at his mother.

* * *

Preston's mother must have won the "discussion" as Christmas morning there were a big magic set, a book of card tricks, and a deck of cards under the tree. Preston immediately read the instructions, pulled out the deck of cards, fanned it out in front of his grandmother and ordered her to take a card.

Preston tried to do what the book said and the cards scattered onto the floor. 

"Perhaps, my darling, you should practice before you try to show off," his grandmother said.

"That's not what he should be spending his time on, mother," his father said.

Preston sighed, resolving to practice until he proved to his father that he could do it--and still make his grades. He could do both! Did his father think he was a slouch or something?

* * *

Preston spent the next three months practicing as much as he could once he'd finished with his homework. He also spent months making himself a magic cloth in front of the TV and when it was time he draped it over the TV dinner stand that they sometimes ate off of. Then he called his parents into the room.

"Really, Preston?" his father said.

"Sit down, John," his mother said. "I can't wait to see how hard you've been working, Preston."

Preston smiled widely. He picked up the toy wand that had come in the magic set. "I'm really glad we're almost done with winter. I'm ready for spring flowers." As he said flowers, he pushed the rod up on the wand and caused velvet flowers to pop out of the end of his wand.

His mother applauded. His father just rolled his eyes.

Preston sighed, shuffling his deck of cards. "So, Dad, how was work today? Make any big business deals?"

"Nothing terribly exciting," he replied.

Preston fanned out the cards face down, holding them out to his mother. "Pick a card, but don't show me."

His mother did, showing it to his father.

"You too, Dad," Preston said.

His father did.

Preston smiled. "School was really cool." He reached behind his back. "I told you last week we put these seeds on Mrs. Szalinski's old antique record player on wet paper towels right?" He flipped the deck over. "It was running all week, and we looked at the seeds today. It was wild." He flipped over the top card. He brought the deck forward. "Give me your cards." He took them, putting them back in different spots in the deck. He then mixed the deck, careful to not disturb the top card that was the only one not upside down. "So the seeds, they grew!" Preston put the cards behind his back again. "But that's not the cool part!" He flipped the top card over so it matched the other cards. "The roots were growing to the outside of the record player!" He flipped the deck over. "And the shoots were growing to the middle! It was so cool! Mrs. Szalinski said it's because of centrifugal force--we could even maybe use it to generate something approximating gravity for space travel some day." He brought the deck forward again. "But not as cool as this. Your cards are going to turn themselves over!" Preston picked up his wand and waved it over the deck. "Abracadabra!" He spread the deck out on the table, most of the cards face down. The Jack of Diamonds and 4 of Spades were face up. Preston grinned, pulling out the cards triumphantly. "Are these your cards?"

"They are," his mother said.

Preston's father's jaw dropped. "How did you do that?"

"Nope." Preston grinned impishly. "A real magician never reveals his secrets, Dad."

His father smiled. "I suppose not. And I can't argue with your grades while you've been learning this either. Great job! What else have you learned?"

Preston grinned from ear to ear and started his next trick.

End.


End file.
